


Arrietty's Horizon

by Leaves_Crown



Category: Kari-gurashi no Arietti | The Secret World of Arrietty
Genre: Exploring, Friendship, Gen, Lesotho, Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2367707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leaves_Crown/pseuds/Leaves_Crown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arrietty meets Sho again. He offers to take her to a place where more Borrowers were spotted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Arrietty is one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen. 
> 
> Naturally, I had to write about Arrietty and Sho.

Jumping was like flying these days. Arrietty knew every leaf and branch of this Japanese maple tree. Sure-footed and confident of her ever strengthening muscles, she grabbed the large leaf and swung herself onto the wood of the shrine.

That the shrine maiden was aware of her, she had found out months ago. Arrietty had been less sure then, and had slipped on a bit of honey, hurting her ankle. Though she had tried to drag herself out of sight, the human bean had come in.

Without the slightest hint of surprise, she had picked Arrietty up and cut a bandage into small pieces. With great gentleness, she had wrapped it around Arrietty’s ankle and then walked her out into the night, back to her house in the tree.

This had all passed without a word, and Arrietty had taken this as her cue not to mention the shrine maiden’s kindness to her parents.

Moving had been a hardship on them all, and she did not want them to go through it again.

She ran now, to the corner where the shrine maiden offered to the small spirits, as she called them in her prayers. Two cubes of sugar had been left, but Arrietty took only one, leaving room for the berry and piece of thread she had also left. She clasped her hands together in thanks, as she had seen the shrine maiden do. 

The shrine maiden was beautiful for a human, with black hair so long that several borrower families could have used it as thread for generations. Though other people visited the forest shrine during day time, Arrietty and her family felt safe around here. Apart from her, the human beans had no notion of their existence. Even if they did, these type of people were more likely to worship than to harm.

Seeing them wish and pray, she missed him sometimes.

Sho.

No, not sometimes.

Every day.

He had been her first friend, the first soul who showed her a wider world. Though they met with the borrower family that lived near the gas station every two months or so, and though Spiller stopped by sometimes, Arrietty felt increasingly lonely without him.

So, when her father suggested she would go and see him next week, when her fifteenth birthday had passed, she smiled and nodded happily.

Her mother gave her no opposition, yet her anxiety shone in her eyes. Arrietty reassured her of her love for her, every day until her departure would come, and embraced her mother tightly after seeing the huge cake she had baked to celebrate her fifteenth.

In truth, Arrietty was anxious as well.

Sho had been sick.

Sho might have died.

If she would journey this far only to find that she lived in a world without him, her heart would break.

She took nothing but bare essentials; her pin, rope and all the love her parents could give her.

Coldness, coughs and predators plagued her on her journey through the wild. Yet, she also saw beauty, warmth and affection as she travelled. Not a single human bean, or borrower she met, as she passed rivers, frogs and fighting birds.

Her world widened, as it should.

And suddenly, she recognized a tree and a rock. A tear fell from her eyes. This had been her home, her happy home and the birthplace of her first friendship for so many years. Leaving it had left her feeling oddly displaced, like a person with a new house that had not entirely become home.

Niya came to greet her as a matter of fact. No moodiness this time. Arrietty clung to Niya’s fur, getting a ride for the last few yards. Her heart leaped with fear.

What if he was no longer?

What if she was alone?

The door opened and he stood there. Not breathing heavily at the exertion, as he would have a year ago, but strong.

“Sho!”

His eyes widened, and then he cried as well, picking her up, holding her close to his enormous face, laying her against his cheek.

She laughed, stretched out her arms and hugged the skin. It had filled out a bit, was no longer as pale.

“I’m so glad,” he whispered. “So glad.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. “Yes.”

“Arrietty.” His voice sounded raw with emotion. “You are not alone.”

Her eyes opened again. “Yes, I told you we would not die out.”

He laughed, elated. “It is better than that. I found out. There are borrowers not just in Japan, but in other places as well.”

Arrietty was only vaguely aware that there was anything beyond the huge land she lived on. “Oh?”

"There is a place,” Sho said, warming to the subject. “where there are more like you.”

"Beyond our Japan?"

"Far beyond. My aunt does business there sometimes and she has met people there that know about Borrowers like I do. She has met eleven Borrowers in total."

"Eleven." Arrietty began to smile, as Sho put her on his shoulder. "Eleven!"

She had never met more than seven in her life, and that included her parents.

"I am told they know even more."

Excited beyond words, she tapped on Sho's ear. "Where is this place? Can we walk there?"

"It's called Lesotho. It's far away, so we'll have to fly.”

"With those... big things...planes?""

“Yes,” Sho said. “If you want to go, I’ll take you there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read my Free!/Sailor Moon crossover, you might have deducted that the Shrine Maiden is none other than Hino Rei, better known as Sailor Mars. This picture helped inspire that part of the story:  
> http://leavescrown.tumblr.com/post/98545533529/goannavanessastuff-sailor-mars-fanart-rei-hino
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story so far :)


	2. Chapter 2

Arrietty could read, but only to an extent. Her mother had taught her hiragana and about hundred of the most common characters used by human beans. Since time immemorial, borrowers had studied writing. A select few had been interested in knowledge gathered by those larger than them, while others only used them to convey best wishes to distant relatives. Arrietty's education had been better than average, so when Sho put her down on his desk and opened a book, larger even than the others, she was not wholly out of her depth.

He opened it at what she understood was a map. It looked very different from anything her parents or Spiller had ever drawn for her. They had used little branches in the sand to indicate where they would find a garbage heap with useful material or a hornet nest to avoid. The biggest part of it was blue, as if it was showing a few larger and smaller islands in a river. Yet there was no bank, just a large smudge of whiteness at the bottom and more blue at the top.

“It’s a world map,” Sho explained.

“World.” Arrietty knew the land she lived on, vast as it was, was not the only land that existed. She jumped to the middle, to the biggest amount of land. “Japan?”

Sho smiled. “No, you’re in Russia now.”

Arrietty watched his finger move to the right, to a much smaller group of islands at the edge of it. “Japan.”

“Oh!” She bowed down, touching the paper with her small fingers.

“Japan is still big, but the world is much larger.” Sho pointed at some strange markings. “Can you read it?”

“I can read!” Arrietty said quickly. “This is not writing.”

“It is, but the writing of people from other places. This is a foreign map. The names are all in English, but more countries use that way of writing.”

“You mean… they can’t read our books?”

“Mostly, no.”

Arrietty’s eyes widened. She jumped back onto the large landmass. “Here?”

“No.”

She ran all the way to the left, crossing more blue until she came to another large landmass. “Here?”

“I’m afraid not.”

She sat down on the Mexican Gulf, trying to digest all this.

“They also don’t use the same words as we do when they speak. They have different words for the same things.”

This reminded her of Spiller, who spoke differently from her, though they could still communicate. He had felt shy sometimes in her presence, afraid she would think him less for not speaking as she did. “They would think I am stupid?”

“Smart people don’t. They all know everyone has their own language, and don’t hold it against you if you don’t know their own.”

“Where…is this place where many borrowers live?”

“Lesotho?” Sho’s finger went to the bottom, to a rather small bit of green encircled by a country that was marked with orange. “Here.”

“Do they speak like us?”

“People there speak many different languages. One of them is English.”

“Do you speak their languages?”

“I only know some English.” Sho smiled apologetically. “Many people in Lesotho speak Sesotho. My aunt sent me a grammar book. I am trying to learn it now.”

Arrietty stared at him in awe. “Do human beans always learn more languages?”

“Not all, but some people do. It is easier to travel for us, so we have more of a need.”

“We have a need too!” Arrietty crossed her arms. “There are so few of us here. We need to go and meet these other borrowers and talk to them.”

Sho nodded. “You are right, of course. That’s why I want to take you there.”

“You have to teach me though: Sesotho and English.”

“I will.” Sho took another book from his shelf. “”Let’s start with the alphabet.”

*

They spent two weeks on their studies, waking up early and going to bed late. She was gratified to find that the evil Haru-san no longer lived there, and relaxed more every day, despite the intensity of their studies. Even on breaks they sat outside, continuing to study. Arrietty would sit on Niya’s head as she went through lists of words: Sesotho in the morning and English in the afternoon. Sho advanced as much as she did and on the tenth day they attempted simple exchanges that made them laugh at their own pronunciations.

What made her happiest though, was that Sho lived his life to the utmost. He did not just breathe and have a heartbeat like every other mammal or bird, but did even the smallest thing with the utmost joy. He stared at the sky with pleasure, laughed at the way English words rhymed and held up Arrietty near his face, listening intently to everything she had to say.

No longer in fear of his life, his kind nature bloomed amidst the flowers of the garden. Arrietty wished her parents would have been here to see it.

The only thing that made her uneasy was that Sho’s aunt would come to pick them up in the third week. She had done business in Lesotho for a few years and was a good speaker of Sesotho, as well as English.

Arrietty hid in Sho’s dollhouse when she first appeared. The lady peeked at her through the window, bidding her to come out. When she did, finally, Arrietty found that she was not fazed by her small form.

“In Lesotho, more people know about borrowers than here. I would say almost one in twenty people knows.”

“Really?” Sho sat down on an armchair, facing her, and let Arrietty sit on his knee.

“Yes. Borrowers there do things differently. They intently watch a potential host for a long time, test them in certain ways. Once they judge the human trustworthy, they start writing letters to them. If the human writes back and accepts them, they will agree to live with them.”

Arrietty and Sho looked at each other.

“It makes it easier for them to stay in touch with other borrowers. The human hosts can visit each other and take them with them.”

“That sounds wonderful!” Sho let out.

“They must really trust the human beans,” Arrietty said softly.

“They do… like you trust my nephew.”

“Are you sure you want to go?” Sho asked. “The flight will not be without danger. If someone like Haru-san spots us…”

Arrietty paused and then nodded solemnly. “For the good of my people, I will have to.”

Sho answered her nod. “I will do anything I can to protect you.”

Looking up at his face, Arrietty felt a surge for affection. If there was one soul in the world she would trust with this, it was him. They would both likely experience things they had never thought of when abroad. It would not just be good for her and her people, but for him as well.

She bowed her head at his aunt. “Thank you very much for helping us.”

Smiling, the lady leaned back in her chair. “I only wish my father could have been here to see this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Next time:**  
>  Lesotho


End file.
